Amazing adventure Tulum, Coba, Cenote and Playa del Carmen Tour.

Posted By : GorgeousDreams
The headline says it perfectly. Nightmare. It started out that we had to change transportation two additional occurances, which wasn't that big of a deal, but nothing was said to any of us why that was happening. We ended up on a large bus and our tour operator was Olympia. After the guided tour of Tulum, we had some time to walk around and take some photos on our own. Being that it was a lovely place to visit the ruins, and with the all the people there, I did lose track of time. However, when I noticed that I was maybe going to be late getting back, it started to rain. Lots of people started leaving, and this slowed me up quite a bit. I got a call from an information representative telling me that my tour operator was looking for me. I told him to relay to her that I was walking that way but stuck behind a mob of tourists. When I got to the bus area, I was probably ten minutes late or so, I then discovered that my tour had left without me. My belongings were on the bus, including my wallet, ID, and keys to my hotel room. The rest of the day was spent trying to communicate with Olympia about whether I was going to get my property returned to me. My phone battery was almost depleted during all of this. There was nowhere to buy a charger or cable, because the vending machine on site was out of stock. The store did not have what I needed either. I was fretting all the while as Olympia took her leisure to return my communication about what I should do. I have text messages to prove that she was cold-blooded about it all and completly unsympathetic. An hour and a half passed as she was checking with the driver what my options were. I tried to go back into Tulum, but they wanted a ticket to go along with my wristband. Olympia had kept the tickets. So I did not purchase another ticket for now I had to worry about how much cash I was spending because I only had a small amount on my person and , in my mind, I might have to pay for transportaion to Playa del Carmen. Finally, when I thought my phone was about to die, and after multiple deflecting messages from her, she says that the bus will come back around to pick me up at the end of the day. Verifying this was a little wonky as well. Once picked up at the entrance, there was no apology of any kind. Luckily, heh, my belongings were still on the bus. That was the only positive ending of this 'adventure', since I missed Coba, the cenote, and lunch and was miserable and worried the entire experience.
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Posted On : 2023-08-04 19:29:28

Posted By : 442rjc
Decent trip, but I wouldn't say it was the best only bc the tires on the bus blew out and unfortunately we did not get to see Coba bc of it. So this review is on everything before then.

I give it 4 bc the guides, while very knowledgeable, are not particularly charismatic speakers. As a entertainer and lover of history myself, I am biased about this. That being said, while the guides are extremely well-versed in the Mayan culture, IMO, they just talked way too much without really capturing attention. I know it's a very redundant speech but it's also 9 am, so maybe chill a lil.

BTW, this criticism isn't just for this tour, it's almost all tours. Too much talking at 8 am, just to sell ya stuff.
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Posted On : 2023-02-01 15:07:53

Posted By : apw95u00
READ THIS IF YOU'RE BOOKING THIS TOUR OR SIMILAR FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!
These types of bus tours in the Mayan Riviera area are great! Especially this Amazing adventure Tulum, Coba, Cenote and Playa Del Carmen tour!

If you haven't taken one before, you may be a little concerned with the information provided in the descriptions. Therefore, I'll breakdown how most of these generally work. I've taken several of these types of trips with multiple companies and they've all been great!
First, when booking make sure that the company you're booking through offers pickup at or close to your hotel. Most will provide some sort of pickup option to accommodate as best as possible. More on this in a moment.
Second, don't expect a prompt reply to your booking. If booking through TripAdvisor you'll receive a confirmation email of the reservation through them. Then the tour company will usually reach out 3-5 days before the tour.
Most provide clear concise instructions of where to be and when for pickup. Depending on your pickup location and the tour company's policy. You'll be picked up by either a shuttle that will bring you to the main bus or the main bus itself depending on where your pickup location is in relation to their route.
Once on board the guides are quite knowledgeable about the area and local traditions, cultures and even offer helpful tips to keep yourself and family safe and how to not get ripped off by shady vendors in the areas you're visiting. The guides take great responsibility for everyone's safety. I've even seen where they had to continue on even though there were several people very late getting back to the bus and they managed to pick them up in a shuttle and bring them to meet back up with the main bus at the next stop.
These tours can be VERY long 12-13 hours from pickup to drop off depending where you're pickup/drop off location is in relation to their route. The busses are very clean and well air conditioned and most offer a water, soda, beer package while on board. The guides typically speak primarily in spanish but translate just about everything to english very well.
At each stop they'll make sure everyone clearly understands the instructions, and return time/location expectations. They are usually quite knowledgeable of the history and lore of each site and will guide you through the sites, then let you roam for a bit on your own. Most sites have tons of souvenir vendors surrounding them and there is typically plenty of time to make some purchases. Most of the time you'll return to your hotel after dark. I cannot recommend this tour enough and the several just like it to various ancient Mayan sites around the Yucatan. When booking, and while attending, just have a positive, open mind that there may be some cultural and societal commonality differences that you may not be used to. As long as you stay positive and open minded, you will have an amazing time on any of these types of tours.
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Posted On : 2022-06-14 11:17:04

Posted By : Vanessa_S
The pick-up was very chaotic. We were on the bus for almost 2 hours, driving around. It was freezing inside the bus which we had to change at some point. One of the guides seemed very mad from the beginning and kept telling us to not be late and that he would leave without us - never happened and we never left on time although guests weren't late. Unfortunately, we did not have a lot of time at the Tulum archeological site. Very sad because that was the highlight of the trip. However, our English speaking guide was very good at telling us a lot about Mayans and answered all our questions. Just more time at the site would have been nice.
Since Coba was under maintenance we went to a Mayan town instead to see a ceremony, try some Mayan Tacos and listen to some music.
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Posted On : 2022-03-22 06:25:57

Posted By : kevinpL6844MG
I was hesitant to write this review because our guide was decent but the description that they use to describe this trip are misleading pickup was at 7:30 and we spent 3 whole hours picking up other passengers in a full size charter bus before we finally started for tulum. Tulum is a a beautiful place but the problem was that because they booked so many people all of the places we stopped were cut down to an hour or less and then we had to wait for them to drop everyone off!! So a trip that was supposed to be 10 hours turned into a 16 hour day ruining the plans for the rest of our night. It felt really rushed and we just would not recommend this tour.
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Posted On : 2020-12-14 20:38:27

Posted By : CanadaLuc
I found it easy to make/change the reservation. Confirmation of reservation was clear and bus was on-time for pickup.
Augustin was the lead guide and did a great job at putting us at ease in the bus and sharing interesting information about Maya civilization/culture. He had a great understanding of English and was able to speak it with no issues.
Nissa was the logistics guy. He was very enthusiastic & sympathic and did an awesome job !
Forgot the name of the driver, but he did a great job ! Bus was in great condition and his driving abilities were perfect !
But... "Professor" (?) Albert is the weak link in the story ... and he is part of the 2 deceptions I have about the tour ...
Not sure what kind of professor he is, but... probably not in Mayan history. He shared little information with us, beside sharing that in Tulum city the high society was allowed inside the walls and the low society were staying outside and making trade. His explanation of the solar phenomenon (solstice) with the building was odd and limited to what was on the sign. His understanding of English was limited to simple questions, so we couldn't get more info. As the group was walking with him to go to Tulum, he was smoking, which was disruptive (he could have waited). He has nice manners, but his guiding abilities for an archeological tour are questionable...

The other deception is about Coba. Tour description indicates "We will go to Coba and our certified guide will tell you all about the amazing history of the city."
Well... we were let on our own in Coba and no amazing story was shared with us. I had to ask question to Augustin about the ball game that I saw in order to learn more.

oh ! and food for lunch was great !!!
and the Cenote we went to ... magical !!!
and management of the schedule was well done

Bottom line, I selected this tour because it had 2-3 hours at each site - plenty to learn about Mayan civilization - but not much was shared with us :-/ If someone was to ask me about this tour, I would be a bit reluctant to recommend it.
That being said, it's an issue fairly easy to solve - by getting better guides :P or changing the description to match the reality.

It looks like no hand sanitizer was available on the tour.
In these COVID times, dispensing a shot of hand sanitizer to everyone entering the bus would have been advisable
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Posted On : 2020-12-06 21:51:06

Posted By : Saminbc
Really loved the trip. We had a full packed bus, which was a bit cramped in the back, but it didn't ruin the trip. Jimmy was excellent. Great knowledge, very accommodating and we had enough time in all locations. My wife has motion sickness and had a bit of a headache and Jimmy was very helpful in having the driver take us to a local pharmacy to get medicine during the lunch stop. The cenote was excellent and we had it to ourselves for awhile before other groups came.

Would highly recommend.
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Posted On : 2020-02-07 17:08:26

Posted By : cola825
Francisco's knowledge of the Mayan culture is amazing. I learned a lot and was grateful to visit this beautiful place
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Posted On : 2019-10-28 13:40:04

Posted By : douglasss832
WOW! What a great tour. The best guides and a day full of fun. The guide we had was so informative and nice. What a great guy. I highly recommend this tour. Just note, the itinerary said it was a partial day tour but it ended up being a 12 hour day. At first we were not happy but after the day began, we were glad to be on this tour even for a full day. Thank you so much for the great time and customer service. I went with my 2 teenage boys and it was an experience we’ll never forget.
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Posted On : 2019-05-28 23:24:48

Posted By : SilvanaBurnes
These ruins are a set of temples dedicated to the Mayan Gods, the great pyramid in Coba can still climb to the top. If you like to walk among nature and discover new things, this tour is for you as well as Tulum, your city , fauna and flora are amazing!
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Posted On : 2019-03-03 22:13:50